A wide variety of memory devices can be used to maintain and store data and instructions for various computers and similar systems. In particular, flash memory is a type of electronic memory media that can be rewritten and that can retain content without consumption of power. Unlike dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices and static random access memory (SRAM) devices in which a single byte can be erased, flash memory devices are typically erased in fixed multi-bit blocks or sectors (e.g., erase blocks). Flash memory devices typically are less expensive and more dense as compared to many other memory devices, meaning that flash memory devices can store more data per unit area.
Flash memory is a type of non-volatile electronic memory media that can be rewritten and can retain content without consumption of power. Flash memory has become popular, at least in part, because it combines the advantage of high density and low cost memory with being electrically erasable. Flash memory can be used in many portable electronic products, such as cell phones, portable computers, voice recorders, thumbnail drives and the like. The fact that flash memory can be rewritten, can retain data without a power source, is comparatively small in size, and is relatively light weight have all combined to make flash memory devices useful for transporting and maintaining data.
The amount of data that can be stored in a host device and a mass storage device has steadily increased. For example, multimedia card (MMC) and secure digital (SD) cards can store data ranging from 8 megabytes (MB) to 16 gigabytes (GB) of data or more. As a result of the increased memory capacity of host devices and mass storage devices, there can be a desire to incorporate hardware and/or software tools that can potentially add to the lifetime of these devices.
While flash memory has certain advantages, there is a desire to improve the lifetime of flash memory devices, as flash memory blocks or sectors can be subject to failure or programming errors with continued use (e.g., read, write, program, and erase cycles can wear or age a flash memory). Further, it is desirable to reduce the loss of margin in the cells of an erase block (e.g., fragmented valid data, among others) during erase operations, as reducing margin loss can extend the use of the flash memory as well as reduce programming errors in flash memory.